Our growth strategy focuses on continued investment in growth markets and in segments where we have differentiated positions, such as powder coatings, marine and protective coatings and emerging decorative paints end markets.

As well as complementing our leading positions in the premium segment, we also understand the importance of solid positions in our mid-market segments. This enables us to drive growth, increase scale, achieve higher absolute profit and protect the profitability of  our premium offerings. Our approach is tailored to the uniqueness of each segment and focuses on existing AkzoNobel brands, while improving asset utilization of our integrated supply chain. 

Our enhanced operational performance is helping us achieve our mid-term growth ambitions. During the year, we invested in capturing these key growth opportunities:

• We significantly increased our capacity for powder coatings through a capacity boost in North America and an expansion of our Como plant in Italy. This helped us deliver on significant specification wins throughout the year

• We also completed a major investment project at our Bac Ninh production plant in Vietnam, which will strengthen our position in Asia and sharpen our focus on more sustainable manufacturing. 

• With total investments exceeding €18 million, five new powder coating lines were added to the multi-site, along with a line for water-based products for the consumer electronics market

• We upgraded an automated production line at our Suzhou site in China to accelerate growth and double capacity for our Marine and Protective Coatings business by 2025